Cooling device



Mmh 17, 1942.4 H, L, GRAPP 2,276,614

COOLING DEVICE Filed March 13, 1941 Patented Mar. 1'7, 1942 UNTED STATES 'rsn'r cernes 3 Claims.

This invention relates to a furnace or heated chamber and particularly to a means for cool-- ing a shaft extending into said chamber.

In heated chambers such as furnaces of various kinds, and heat treating chambers it is necessary to have a shaft extending through an opening in the wall of the furnace or chamber.

This shaft often drives a fan disposed within and which in turn will be cooled by the air drawn into the furnace or chamber.

It is a further object of the invention, in connection with a heated chamber having a wall with a passage therethrough, a shaft extending through said wall into said chamber and means for drawing air into said chamber through said passage, to provide a disk formed of a metal having high heat conductivity such as aluminum, which disk is disposed closely adjacent said wall whereby said disk will absorb heat from said shaft and the air drawn through said passage will wipe around said disk and cool the same.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a disk as set forth in the preceding paragraph, which disk extends parallel to said wall, means for holding said disk in various positions on said shaft whereby in addition to its cooling function said disk may be used to regulate the amount of air drawn into said chamber through said passage.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be fully set forth in the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawing in which like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. 1 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in vertical section through the chamber wall and disk used; and

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1 as indicated by the arrows, some portions being broken away.

Referring to the drawing, a wall III of a highly heated chamber is shown such 'as a furnace or heatr treating chamber. At the inner side of the wall a block II of insulating material is shown and a portion I2 of a fan casing is shown. Headed andnutted bolts I3 extend through block II and walls III and I2. A plate I4 is secured to the outer side wall I9 by the bolts or screws I5.y Plate I4 and wall III have a passage Illa extending therethrough, which passage also extends through block II and casing wall I2. while this passage may be variously formed, it preferably is made cylindrical. A shaft I6 extends centrally through passage I4a, the same being supported in bearings Il secured by bolts I8 to a bracket I 9. Bracket I9 is in turn secured to plate I4 by the Ibolts 2B. Bearings I1 will be of the ball bearing or other suitable type and collars 2| may be secured to shaft I6 at either side of one bearing Il to hold shaft I6 against longitudinal movement. Shaft I6 will be driven by and have connected thereto a motor not shown. At the inner end of shaft I it has secured thereto a fan 22, only a portion of which is shown. In accordance with the present invention a disk 24 is provided, the same having a hub secured to shaft I6 by the screws 25. Disk 24 will be made of metal having a high heat conductivity such as aluminum, bronze or an aluminum alloy.

In operation shaft I 6 is driven and fan 22 is thus driven. Fan 22 dr-aws air through the furnace both through passage I4a and through other ropenings not shown. A high temperature is maintained in the said chamber and shaft I6 becomes quite hot. This heat will naturally fbe transmitted by the shaft to the bearings II particularly bearing I'I nearest the Wall I 0. With the disk 24 in use however, the heat in shaft I6 is largely absorbed by said disk. The air drawn into the chamber through passage I 4a as indicated .by the arrows in Fig. 1 must pass around or wipe the disk 24. The disk is cooled by this air and the heat is thus carried away by the air. The air ybeing supplied from the atmosphere outside the furnace or heating chamber is quite cool. The disk 24 is disposed with its flat side quite close to and parallel to plate I4 and the disk can be moved closer to or farther from plate I4 by loosening screws 25 and can thus be secured in different positions. Said disk can thus be used to regulate the amount of air being drawn through passage I 4a. This gives an additional air regulation and the disk thus has an air regulating function in addition to its major cooling function.

From the above description it will be seen that I have provided a very simple and eiiicient means for carrying away the heat from shaft IB and thus preventing bearing l1 from becoming unduly heated. The device has been amply demonstrated in lactual practice and found to be very successful and eicient. With a temperature of 1200 degrees in the chamber it is possible to hold ones hand on bearing l1. 'I'he device gives unexpectedly eicient results.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts, without departing from the scope of applicants invention, which generally stated, `consists in a device capable of carrying out the objects above set forth, in the parts and combinations of parts disclosed and defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. The combination with a heated chamber, a shaft extending through one wall thereof, said wall having a passage therethrough somewhat larger than said shaft, and means for drawing air into said chamber through said passage of a disk for-med of metal having a high conductivity secured to said shaft :closely adjacent lsaid wall whereby heat from said chamber and shaft will lbe absorbed by said disk and air drawn into said passage by said means will wipe around said disk and cool the same.

2. The combination with a heated chamber, a shaft extending through one wall thereof, said wall having a passage therethrough somewhat larger than said shaft, and means for drawing air into said chamber through said passage of a disk formed of metal having a high heat conductivity and having a hub secured to said shaft, said disk extending closely adjacent and parallel to said wall so that air drawn into said passage by said means will Wipe around said disk and pass between the same and said wall to cool said disk and shaft and means for holding said disk in different positions for regulating the amount of air drawn into said furnace.

3. The combination with a heated chamber having a wall, -a bracket secured to said wall, a

bearing carried by said bracket, `a shaft journaled in said bearing extending through said wall into said chamber, said wall having a passage therethrough about said shaft, a fan secured to said shaft within said chamber for drawing air through saidv passage and a disk secured to said shaft and extending close to and parallel to said wall so that air drawn into said passage by said fan will wipe around said disk and pass between the same and said wall to cool said disk and shaft and means for holding said disk in various positions on said shaft.

HERBERT L. GRAPP. 

